His Ways Don’t Exactly Match Ours

Have you ever been left scratching your head and wondering why God allowed a particular thing to happen in your life? I’m sure we all have. Sometimes we think that logic dictates that certain things happen in a certain order for us. I’m a “connect the dots” kind of person. I try to connect the dots between the events of my life, and when I run out of dots to connect, I try to think of where the next dot will logically be. Of course, my logic and God’s plan don’t always match.

In Isaiah 55:8-9, we read:  For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. Just because we are thinking in a certain way, doesn’t mean that God is looking out for us in the same way we are thinking.

I’m always comforted when I read Acts 1:6-8. In this passage of the Bible, after the Resurrection, the disciples asked Jesus “Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”(1:6) In their minds, this is the next logical step. They had followed Jesus for three years, left their homes and their families, seen the horrible passion and crucifixion, and had seen Jesus after He rose from the dead. In their minds, the next step was a political deliverance from their Roman overlords and a restoration of the kingdom to Israel.

This is why Jesus’ answer must come like a “kick in the gut” to them. He answers them “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority.”  (1:7) In other words, the plans of God did not match their plans. However, God wasn’t going to leave them with nothing. In 1:8, Jesus says to the disciples “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”

He wasn’t going to give them political or military power. He was going to give them something even greater, the power of the Holy Spirit.

I like today’s verse because it talked about how God will make straight our paths. We spend a lot of time trying to make our own paths—to fame, fortune, security, retirement, relaxation, etc. The only path that really is important at the end is the path to everlasting life. If we make all of our own paths and we don’t find that path, then what good were all the other trails we blazed? And if we were constantly frustrated by the paths our lives took, if we make the final path, the path to heaven, then it will not have mattered which paths we didn’t get to take.

I don’t know from year to year where my path will take me. What I do know if that God has laid out a path for me that goes straight to everlasting life, He has laid out a path to sainthood for every person. The paths for many of the saints were very hard. They were martyred, tortured, exiled and imprisoned for their faith. I can’t think of any saint who lived a carefree life of luxury. Because to become a saint means that one has to take up the struggle of Christianity, one has to trust in the Lord with all his or her heart, and this is a struggle.

Trust means putting faith in what you cannot fully see or comprehend. It means ceding control. You can’t be controlling and trusting someone else at the same time. When you trust someone else, it means that you give them control. When we trust in God, it means that we give Him control of our lives. It means that even in those moments when life doesn’t seem to make sense, or the path is not the one we would have chosen for ourselves, that we trust in His ways, and in His plan. We trust that He fixes the times and seasons for our lives. We trust that He will make our paths straight and get us where we ultimately want to be, with Him.

Personal insight is a good thing. But it is not the most important thing. Trusting in God with all of our hearts and acknowledging Him in all of our ways, this is how we stay on the path to everlasting life.

Trust God today. Acknowledge Him in all ways. Give glory to Him in all circumstances today!